


When Your Best Isn't Enough

by laireshi



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Marvel 616, Marvel Adventures: Avengers
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Marriage, Marvel Multiverse, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining, Unconfessed Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-01 00:25:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17233973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/pseuds/laireshi
Summary: 616 Steve and Tony get sent to two different universes where their alternate selves are married.616 Tony is sad: if only his Steve loved him too.616 Steve is brooding: if only his Tony loved him too.





	When Your Best Isn't Enough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cap Iron Man Community](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Cap+Iron+Man+Community).



> For the following prompt: "Ah, unrequited love. When your best isn't enough." (<http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=1033>).

After merely three days in this other world, Tony wants nothing else than to go home. It’s not that it’s a _bad_ world, quite the contrary. It’s so _good_ and _nice_ Tony’s going crazy. The Hulk keeps kittens. Tony’s other self, asked about anything resembling Civil War, looked shocked.

“I’d never fight with Steve,” he said. 

And Tony’s willing to believe it. He’s never seen a pair of people more obviously in love than this world’s Steve and Tony. They’re almost attached at the hip, always smiling at each other and exchanging kisses. 

He’s happy for them. He is. But it _aches_ to see them and think he’d never have that. He’s so jealous of this other Tony, when he knows his Steve won’t ever love him. 

“Hey, are you okay?” 

Tony raises his eyes to see, well, himself looking at him with a worried expression. “I’m okay,” he lies.

“We’ll get you home soon.” The other Tony gives him a reassuring smile. “I know you must miss your Steve a lot.”

“I do,” Tony says. “But, ahh—we’re not like you two.” He’s not sure why he even said it. He doesn’t want pity, but even more than that, he doesn’t want to pretend he and his Steve are as happily married as their counterparts from this world. Even thinking about it hurts.

The other Tony frowns, confused. “You don’t love him?” he asks, like the idea seems foreign to him.

“I do,” Tony says again. “ _He_ doesn’t.” He sighs. “It’s okay. He deserves better anyway.”

“I used to think that about my Steve,” the other Tony says.

Tony shakes his head. “You never fought. Not like we did. Don’t compare us.”

Tony’s other self bites on his lip. He doesn’t argue with Tony, which is a relief at least, but he’s obviously upset for him. 

“Look, you don’t have to worry,” Tony says. “My world is not as nice as yours, but it’s _mine_. It’s still home. I have good friends there, Steve one of them.” _If only it were that easy_.

The other Tony nods. Before he can speak, his Steve walks in, and they both immediately smile at each other. Steve wraps his arms around his Tony’s waist. “Everything okay?”

He’s identical to the Steve Tony knows. Watching them is like watching all his fantasies play out: a world where he’s never betrayed Steve, a world where Steve loves him back.

A world where Tony _is_ good enough.

He avoids looking at their joined fingers, the identical rings. “It’s late,” he says. “Go to bed. We’ll finish work tomorrow.”

They exchange a look. The other Tony whispers something into Steve’s ear. Steve looks at him, and then he whispers something back. They both nod.

Steve smiles at Tony. It’s not his regular, open smile. This one is more . . . private. “How about you join us?” he asks.

Tony blinks rapidly. _Captain America did not just invite you to a threesome with him and his husband, Iron Man_.

Steve still smiling, expectant. 

_Captain America did just that_.

“Come on, Tony. When will you have a chance to sleep with yourself?” the other Tony asks. He’s kind, so he doesn’t add, _And with Steve?_

But he’s right, and Tony only hasn’t answered because his brain is refusing to catch up with the situation, not because he doesn’t want to say yes. He wants to say yes. Enthusiastically. Many times.

“I.” His throat is dry. He coughs. He tries again. “I’d love that.” _Smooth, Stark_ , but in his excuse, it is all of his sexual fantasies being fulfilled at once.

The other Tony kisses him first, no hint of uncertainty at all. His lips are soft, his beard only prickles a bit, and as Tony finds out, they both clearly like exactly the same things. There’s tongue, and by the end of it, Tony’s heart is beating wildly in his chest.

He’s only got a moment to catch his breath: Steve kisses him next, and _oh god Steve’s kissing him_ and Tony can’t even _think_. 

His Steve will never kiss him, but Tony will have this memory forever.

***

Steve wants to go _home_. Yes, yes, Sam’s mum’s cookies are the best thing he’s ever eaten—though he _won’t_ tell Jarvis that—and this other Steve and Tony are very welcoming, at least when they’re not teasing each other, but he misses _his_ Tony. 

Even if his Tony will never look at him the way this Tony does at his Steve. 

It doesn’t matter though. His Tony might not love Steve, but he’s still his best friend and Steve’s sure he’s looking for him. He’ll be back soon, but it won’t be soon enough.

Waiting would be easier if the other Steve and Tony weren’t so . . . together. In his short time here, Steve’s walked in on them making out too many times to count. He knows he doesn’t have a chance with his Tony, that he’s not smart enough to keep his interest for long, that Tony will never look at him differently than at a good friend, but _this_ Steve gets to have everything Steve’s ever dreamt of, and it rubs him the wrong way.

So Captain America is jealous. So what. He’s only human too.

(But what does this other Steve have that Steve doesn’t?)

He sighs. Thinking like this won’t lead him anywhere, he knows that, but it’s so _unfair_. He loves Tony more than anything else, and . . . God, this Steve and Tony never even fought, not for _real_. This Steve was never at the edge of _killing_ his Tony. Steve’s only got himself to blame for it, but that doesn’t help at all.

“You’re brooding,” Tony says, but it’s the wrong Tony. Somehow, the differences make it easier. He’s a bit younger, and his eyes are dark brown, not blue like the clear sky. Watching him so happy with a Steve that looks exactly like Steve’s own clone is better than watching a Tony who looks like the right Tony would be.

 _You should be better than that,_ Steve tells himself.

“I’m not brooding,” he tells Tony.

“Uh huh. I can recognise a brooding Steve when I see one. No worries. I’m working on getting you back, and I’m sure your Tony is too.”

Steve nods. “I’m sure he is.” He knows he can trust Tony to bring him home. It wouldn’t be the first time, even if it is the first time he needs saving from another dimension.

“A bit more complicated trust exercises,” Tony laughs, and Steve looks at him without comprehension. “ _Fall backwards, I’ll catch you_. Fall into another universe, I’ll save you.”

Steve huffs a laugh. “Yeah.”

“It’s our wedding anniversary next week,” Tony says. “Are you—”

“No,” Steve cuts in before Tony can finish the question. 

“Oh.” Tony seems to be at a loss of words, like it’s never occurred to him that not every version of Steve gets to be in a happy relationship with him. “That sucks.”

 _You don’t say_ , Steve thinks. “I think I’ll go to sleep now,” he says.

“Okay,” Tony nods. Steve walks out. He turns back when he’s in the doorway, planning to apologise for being that curt—but his other self walked in the room from the other direction and seems to have his tongue halfway down Tony’s throat.

Steve shuffles to his room.


End file.
